Was pro volleyball a success in LOVB Salt Lake's 15-match inaugural regular season?

TAYLORSVILLE — LOVB Salt Lake's inaugural season won't be judged solely by the qualify of its regular-season finale Saturday night at Bruin Arena.

But the five-set thriller won't hurt it, either.

Heidy Casanova had 17 kills and 10 digs, and U.S. Olympian Haleigh Washington added 12 kills, eight digs and two blocks as Salt Lake rallied for an 18-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-17, 15-13

Former BYU star Roni Jones-Perry, the West Coast Conference Player of the Year and AVCA third-team All-American in 2018 from West Jordan, added eight kills for LOVB Salt Lake (7-8), including the fourth-set winner to force a decisive fifth.

Salt Lake trailed 12-8 in the final set before ending on a 6-1 run to clinch the No. 4 seed in next week's LOVB Finals in Louisville, Kentucky in front of a sold-out crowd.

"These girls are used to this high-level competition," Salt Lake coach Tama Miyashiro said. "They love to play in these environments and push each other. I think they are as stoked as we are.

"There's a lot of energy around this league, and a pretty interesting (playoff) format."

The league that launched in 2020 and played its first season this spring after establishing a top-down model — spanning the country's largest youth volleyball system, with 58 clubs over 27 states and more than 19,000 athletes — wrapped up the final set of its final match of the inaugural regular season Saturday night around 9 p.m. MT.

While the quality wasn't always at the level of the Olympians, former NCAA champions and world-class athletes that make up the six-team organization, it wasn't for any lack of excitement.

Will that be enough to spur the league forward into Year 2 of its multiyear broadcast deal with ESPN?

"We've all heard feedback from people that are excited for the league, and what's possible," Miyashiro said. "This is coming from fans who have never seen a volleyball game, as well as our peers — college coaches, professional coaches, our families who have seen hundreds of games. And local here, too.

"They're treated to some really high-level volleyball, and I think they appreciate it, too."

The fully professional league, with minimum salaries of $60,000 for the 14-week season, in addition to bonuses, transportation and housing allowances and a $1,000,000 prize pool for winners of next week's championship, was pro in all the right ways — from coaches to players to stats, communications and social media content.

ESPN initially picked up 28 matches to broadcast across ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN+, then added a few more due to the league's popularity, according to officials. The three-day LOVB Finals beginning April 10 at the KFC Yum! Center will also be broadcast on ESPN platforms, including the first match Thursday between Salt Lake and Austin.

"I don't have insights into viewership and all that. But the fans that came and showed up were incredible. The crowd tonight was really great, and it was really loud," said Chris McGown, the son of legendary BYU volleyball coach Carl McGown who coached the Cougars from 2011-2015 and now leads LOVB Austin. "We've had that same experience almost everywhere we've gone. The fans that showed up have been incredible, and I feel like, in terms of what the league has accomplished, if I'm looking at it from a big-picture perspective, it's exceeded expectations on every front."

McGown, who has also coached in the Netherlands, Japan and with Athletes Unlimited as well as the U.S. U-23 women's national team since he left BYU in 2015, admits no project is perfect — particularly with one the magnitude of launching a coast-to-coast pro volleyball league.

But LOVB has been everything that could've reasonably been expected of it, and then some.

"For the most part, I think the decision-making and the experience has been on the good side," he added. "I'm excited for where this is going to go, for these athletes, and for the experiences they'll continue to get to have."

That's largely due to the excitement of the league, where more than 75% of matches have played at least four sets — to the delight of fans, if not always an exhausted player base.

"I think that's a testament to the competition at this level, and being completely honest, sometimes ugly volleyball as we are trying to figure it out," Washington said. "But both sides are always fighting, and I think it shows how even the talent is in this league.

"There isn't really one team that is whooping people; every team is getting pushed," she added. "The mentality is always just one set at a time, one play at a time."

Through it all — the wins, the losses, and the occasional "ugly" volleyball — the fans kept coming back.

"They've stayed loyal," Washington added. "We've had some really great wins in this gym, and some upsetting losses — and it doesn't seem to faze our crowd.

"It's so fun. I think the crowd this season, especially for the first season taking a chance on us, has been amazing."

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